This is my first submitted story. Hope you enjoy it!
Thanks to vmkc and hergasm for helping sort some issues out.
Please vote and give me feedback. Preferably good.
*****
Chapter 1 -- Preheat
I saw the feathered ball tip on the net.s upper edge and lose speed. I lunged forward and reached my arm and racket out as far as I could. Just before the ball hit the floor I made contact and returned it up and over the net. But the return was too hard and my opponent could easily smash it to the floor before I could recover and even have a chance of saving it. Instead I found myself sitting on my ass puffing for air.
"And match!" I heard my opponent, Thomas, cheer while doing a really lame victory dance.
"Even a blind hen..." I retorted quickly.
That last smirk was kind of true though even if our weekly games were long, hard and even I won them most often because I was a bit fitter then my rival. Though no couch potato, he played both soccer and golf, but my many years riding dirt bikes, both MotoCross and Enduro, had given me the upper hand in the case of stamina.
A big hand reached out to help me up and slowly we walked over to a pair of chairs just beside the court. We both sat down, I emptied my water bottle, covered my head with a towel and tried to regain my breath some.
"What's up, Bro? You're panting worse than me." I heard over his own laboured breathing.
That we both were tired after 45 minutes of dueling on the hard floor wasn't strange but now the roles were somewhat switched.
"I'm recovering from last weekend's Club competition," I replied, "Guess the cold and wet weather got the best out of me. But nothing a hot sauna and a cold beer can't cure."
"Glad my seasons has drawn to an end as well. I hate November!"
We stretched for a few minutes before I started to remove the net, Thomas interrupted me.
"No need for that. I saw the next hour also was booked for Badminton."
"Thank God for the small things in life." I replied while securing the net tightly before I grabbed my stuff and headed for the locker room.
Behind me I heard, "Small things? Sometimes I wonder why we even are friends."
"Perhaps that's just why." I said and we both laughed.
Just as we entered the boy's locker room the door to the women's locker room, a few meters over to ours, opened and in the corner of my eye I saw two figures walking out to the court.
"Who was it? Did you see anything?" My friend in front of me asked. Just a bit too eager for me to let the opportunity pass.
"You're just like you were during middle school. Always wanted to steal a peak."
"Always," the response came directly. "Guess this room brings it out of me."
"Yeah, blame the room." We both laughed again.
He tossed me a can of cold beer from a cooler and I almost downed the whole thing immediately.
We sat down and chatted a while about this and that over a few more beers then went for the showers.
Before we started playing we had cranked up the saunas temperature a notch or two and splashed a whole lot of water on the walls and ceiling to get the best out of our session.
Before a quick wash and go I repeated that treatment so when we entered we only had to pour some water on the heater stones to get that nice heat and steam one wants in a Sauna.
As we seated ourselves on the top bench of the sauna my mind went on a little nostalgic journey back in time. This was my old middle school and during the evenings and weekends the public could hire the gymnasium. This was also the place where me and Thomas met for the first time, two scrawny boys starting 4
th
grade. Our teacher couldn't have made a better match up as she placed us side by side that first day; we instantly hit it off. We had helped and pushed each other to success both in and out of school since then. All the way to present day.
And still after 15 years, we were like that even though we had chosen two different paths academically and spent a few years in different universities before graduating and moving back home. We were both engineers, Thomas an electrical engineer and I chemical, and now we even worked at the same company, a huge pulp and paper plant just outside our hometown.
One could say we were like brothers even though we looked nothing like each other. I was blond, light skinned and blue eyed; a true Norseman. Thomas was darker in both hair, skin complexion and eye-color with his Latin heritage. We were both around 6 feet, me a mere inch taller, and Thomas was stockier just shy of 200lbs compared to my 180.
We were both single, but that was by choice or at least we said so to our worried families (read moms). Our newly started careers occupied most of our time even as a groove had started to settle for the both of us. Then there were sports, both training and watching. We loved our local hockey team and watched every match, home games on site and away games on TV somewhere, as well as the occasional game in the women's and junior leagues.
We were now monks though. During the summer, there was many opportunities for a "flirt" with after works, barbecues and dances.
And during the winter, if nothing else was scheduled, we did just this. Played badminton (or tennis), took a sauna and some beers before we went further. A restaurant, a bar, a game or...
Chapter 2 -- The buildup
A loud sound snapped me out of my thoughts as Thomas threw more waters on the stones. The sudden rush of heat and hiss of steam surrounded me immediately and I only felt the seat flex a little as Thomas sat down on the bench again. But as quickly as the heat had come a breeze of cold air swept into the small room and I saw two shadows step into the mist. It only took a second or two for it to clear enough for me two recognize that the forms inside the door were two women. Both in towels tightly wrapped around their bodies as well as around their heads, like turbans.
"Are you decent?" I heard at the same time as I noticed that both had their eyes closed.
I heard Thomas shuffle around some before he said "I am."
I quickly realized he had rearranged the towel he sat on to cover up and almost automatically I did the same.
